Tuesday, June 28, 2016

We have Trey Gowdy on TV right now, and as you might imagine, what he is saying isn't very complementary to Hillary. He is urging everyone to read his 800 page report. Whew.
Trey never talked about air support, or the lack of air support. We should have had fighters over Benghasi within two hours. We have plenty of fighter bases and aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. They should have had alert birds standing 5 minute alert. That's what my old USAF fighter squadron did 50 years ago. We kept two birds, fully armed and fueled, on five minute alert 24/7. Pilots sitting in the ready room. Occasional scrambles, just to make sure everything works.
I will grant that supersonic fighters are not my first choice for defending a consulate on the ground. But having fighters overhead would be a tremendous morale boost for the defenders on the ground. A low level pass, supersonic, is very discouraging to attackers. Even more discouraging when you do a little strafing on the way. And the fighters can get there faster than anything else.
Along with the fighters, we should have dispatched armed troops by air. Helicopters if they are close enough, fixed wing if not. For fixed wing, the troops parachute in, or the aircraft lands on the closest airport. Surely Benghasi has a city airport. C-130's have been landed on aircraft carriers, which means they can get into any imaginable airfield, no matter how puny.
Finally, Trey Gowdy did not talk about the two US general officers who were relieved of duty that very night. These two officers were canned for preparing to send relief forces to Benghazi.